Challenger files ethics complaint

Long Thompson wants state official to look into Daniels' travel records.

Long Thompson wants state official to look into Daniels' travel records.

September 11, 2008|By ED RONCO Tribune Staff Writer

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson officially filed paperwork Wednesday to launch a state investigation into Gov. Mitch Daniels' travel records. Long Thompson is seeking information on travel by Daniels using state aircraft, and her actions Wednesday made good a Monday ultimatum that she would ask the state inspector general to investigate the Republican incumbent unless he released his records by Wednesday morning. Her request is in reaction to a Fort Wayne Journal Gazette story that reported Daniels used state aircraft 61 times in 2007, sometimes for obvious state business -- such as surveying disaster damage -- and other times for things that seemed more political, such as flying from his West Virginia vacation home to festivals and parades, and to present a trophy at an Indiana regatta. "The governor clearly displayed bad judgment in using our tax dollars to pay for his personal and political travel, and the least he can do is pay us back," Long Thompson said in a statement issued Wednesday that called Daniels "out of touch" with Hoosiers. Daniels' office said that it responds to all public records requests but that at the time Long Thompson issued her challenge, a request had not been made to the office. A request has since been filed, said Jane Jankowski, Daniels' press secretary. Filing the complaint is "an empty political attack," Jankowski said. "He never uses the state aircraft unless there's state business to conduct." In the case of the regatta, which took place in Madison, Ind., Daniels was presenting an award called the Governor's Trophy, she said. "His approach has been accessibility and meeting with Hoosiers all over the state to talk to them about everything from property taxes to full-day kindergarten," Jankowski said. And Daniels' campaign spokesman, Cam Savage, said when the travel is purely political, campaign funds are used to rent a separate mode of transportation. But Daniels does receive ground transportation from Indiana State Police troopers no matter what the reason -- part of the security detail provided to all governors -- Savage said. He said Daniels has done everything by the book. "The further behind in the polls that Jill Long Thompson falls -- 18 points, last I checked -- the more desperate her attacks become," Savage said. "Hoosiers are looking for leadership, vision, results, and Governor Daniels is offering that." Savage refers to a Howey-Gauge poll conducted for the Indianapolis-based Howey Politics Indiana newsletter that shows Daniels ahead of Long Thompson, 53 percent to 35 percent. Long Thompson said in a statement that she expected Daniels would have released the records by now. "If he has nothing to hide, if he did nothing wrong, then he should come forward and lay it all out for the public to judge for themselves," she said.